The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 134

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 134. The Iron Fist’s Legacy (3)
A vast cavern.
At its center, a pair of gauntlets floated weightlessly, radiating an ethereal blue light.
The gauntlets emanated an aura so extraordinary that even someone ignorant of artifacts would instinctively think, “Wow, these look like something special.”
“Brother, those….”
“Don’t tell me….”
A single name flashed simultaneously through both our minds upon discovering the gauntlets.
“Could these be the Iron Fist’s Legacy?”
One of the Five Great Heroes who sealed away the Demon God five hundred years ago and saved humanity.
The name of Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong crossed my thoughts.
“No… why would they be here…?”
I stared at the gauntlets hovering in the air, my expression clouded with confusion.
‘What in the world is going on?’
In my previous life, I had definitely explored these ruins with Yuren, Berald, Iris, and Sophia.
Since it was the first ruins our newly formed party had challenged together, we’d searched every corner and even discovered the hidden passage that Berald found.
‘There was nothing here back then.’
Of course, with ten years having passed between then and now, it was possible someone had taken the gauntlets during that time.
But.
‘We were definitely the first to discover these ruins, weren’t we?’
Our party was the first to find the sealing stones scattered throughout the gorge and open the ruins’ doors, which had remained hidden for the past five hundred years.
‘And we defeated the guardians back then too.’
Guardians naturally spawned within ruins don’t regenerate once destroyed.
If someone had entered the ruins before us and taken the Iron Fist’s Legacy, there would be no explanation for why the guardians remained intact ten years later.
‘Has the future changed…?’
No.
I shook my head quietly.
If something that existed had disappeared, that would be one thing—but something that didn’t exist appearing? How could that relate to a change in the future?
“B-brother…. Can I touch those gauntlets?”
“Wait. If anyone’s touching them, it’ll be me.”
I pulled Berald back as he moved toward the gauntlets and stepped forward myself.
‘I wish Elisha were here right now.’
But there was no way I could call her now.
“Iris. Cast a protective spell just in case.”
“B-but then Dale won’t be….”
Since I was standing alone outside the range, if she cast the protective spell now, I wouldn’t be covered.
I suppressed a slight smile and turned my head toward Iris.
“I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t bother adding the unspoken “you know that, right?”
“…Understood.”
Iris stepped back with a displeased expression and began chanting the incantation.
“Phew.”
I exhaled softly and approached the gauntlet hovering in the center of the cavern.
A gauntlet forged from deep blue metal.
The joints were crafted with such precision that each finger segment could move naturally, as if shaped by a master artisan, and blue lightning crackled around the gauntlet’s surface.
‘That lightning… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before.’
Pushing the nagging question aside, I reached toward the gauntlet.
Crackle!
Blue sparks erupted violently, and the entire cavern trembled as if struck by an earthquake.
“D-Dale!”
“I’m fine.”
I waved reassuringly at Yuren and examined the gauntlet again.
‘It seems this gauntlet serves as the core of the Ruins.’
The fact that the entire cavern shook in response to the gauntlet’s reaction was proof enough.
Crack! Crackle!
I reached toward the gauntlet again, its blue lightning flashing.
Rumble!
As I drew closer, thunder roared and a powerful mana field erupted outward.
An ordinary person would have been incinerated by the blue lightning the moment they touched it.
“Stubborn little thing.”
Whoosh!
Ashen flames blazed forth, incinerating the mana field protecting the gauntlet.
“There.”
The moment I pulled the gauntlet free, the cavern’s trembling stopped as if a switch had been flipped.
“…Is it… over?”
“Are you alright, Dale?”
“Are you hurt?”
The party members who had retreated rushed forward.
I nodded and gently shook the gauntlet in my hand.
“Is that Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy?”
Even Camilla, who usually spouted rigid doctrines about how true warriors shouldn’t be choosy about their weapons, couldn’t resist the powerful allure of “Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy” and gazed at the gauntlet with keen interest.
“It appears so.”
I never imagined I’d actually obtain the legacy that countless heroes had sought for the past five hundred years.
“Th-The Iron Fist’s legacy! This is truly something extraordinary, isn’t it?!”
Berald let out an excited breath, his expression animated.
‘Now that I think about it, in my past life, Berald was the one who explored these Ruins most diligently.’
Of course.
Any martial artist who wielded their fists couldn’t help but be thrilled at the mention of “Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s legacy.”
After all, Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong was the legendary martial artist who had single-handedly defeated tens of thousands of Demon God’s forces with nothing but his fists.
“Here. Take it, Berald.”
I held out the gauntlet to Berald.
Berald stared at me with wide eyes.
“Take it? You mean me?”
“There’s no one else here who can wield the gauntlets properly.”
“B-but brother, don’t you also practice martial arts?”
Berald was so shocked he could barely string words together.
“I do practice martial arts, but my primary weapon is the sword. If I wear the gauntlets, they’ll get in the way when I’m wielding it.”
Besides, I had that absurdly overpowered ability called “Cinder,” so I didn’t need to rely on an artifact’s performance.
‘Forcing myself to use it might actually make me weaker.’
In that sense, Berald was the perfect fit to inherit the Iron Fist’s legacy.
“Really… am I allowed to have this?”
Berald gazed at the gauntlets with trembling eyes.
I glanced around at my party members.
Yuren, Camilla, and Iris all nodded in agreement that Berald should take the Iron Fist’s legacy.
“Besides, even if Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong isn’t your direct ancestor, there’s still some connection, right?”
After all, Ryu Jinhyuk, the current ancestor of the Ryu clan, was Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s younger brother, so there was definitely some relation.
‘Though they were supposedly enemies, from what I heard.’
Either way, these were people who’d been dead for centuries—what did their past relationship matter?
“Th-thank you! Thank you, Dale! And Yuren! Iris! Camilla!”
“No, I thought it was good that you’d have it too.”
“Ahem, ahem. ‘Sister’? Just call me senior.”
“Would it be alright if I called you sister-in-law?”
All my party members chimed in to congratulate Berald.
“I’m actually inheriting the Iron Fist’s legacy…”
Berald’s eyes sparkled like a child receiving a birthday gift.
I suppressed a smile watching him carefully accept the gauntlets as if he might drop them.
‘Seeing him so happy makes me feel good too.’
I was beginning to understand why parents would strain themselves to give their children wonderful gifts.
“May I try it on?”
“It’s yours now, so of course.”
Berald swallowed hard and slipped the gauntlets onto his hands.
Crackle! Crackle crackle!
The moment he put on the gauntlets, blue lightning erupted around him.
“Ooh… huh?”
Berald, who had been repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists, tilted his head in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, now that I’m wearing them, they feel a bit creaky.”
“…Creaky?”
“Hmm, how do I put it? It feels somewhat rusty.”
“….”
“Hehe. Come to think of it, if this is the Iron Fist’s legacy, it’s over 500 years old, isn’t it? It’s only natural that it would rust.”
No.
It doesn’t make sense.
‘An artifact called the legacy of Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong… rusting?’
That couldn’t be.
Damage during combat was one thing, but corrosion over time shouldn’t be possible.
“…Wait.”
In that moment.
The scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place in my mind.
How the legacy of Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong, which didn’t exist ten years later, could be inside the Ruins.
How the legacy could have vanished without any trace of intrusion.
How an artifact of Iron Fist Ryu Jinseong’s caliber could corrode at all.
‘Someone had been secretly draining the Ruins’ mana.’
Like puncturing a small hole in firm fruit to suck out the juice inside.
Someone who couldn’t find how to open the Entrance to the Ruins had instead drilled a tiny hole leading to the Ruins’ core and was siphoning its mana.
Of course, this wasn’t normally possible.
As far as I knew, there was only one Blessing capable of such a thing.
‘The Blessing of Exploitation.’
And the owner of that Blessing was….
Tap, tap.
Footsteps echoed through the vast Cavern.
“Oh my~ I wondered what little mice were hiding in the Ruins, and they turned out to be adorable little brats~?”
A woman with violet hair, dressed in dangerously revealing clothes that flaunted her figure.
Despite her undeniably beautiful appearance that made it hard to look away, the first thought that came to mind upon seeing her wasn’t admiration but a warning: ‘dangerous.’
‘Lactasia, the Archbishop of Desire.’
One of the six standing at the pinnacle of the Demons approached with a sinister smile and leisurely steps.
“Hmm~ let’s see, is there a handsome man to my taste… huh?”
Lactasia’s gaze, which had been slowly scanning the area while licking her lips, fixed on Yuren.
“Oh my, oh my, oh my! What is this! He’s exactly my type?!”
Upon spotting Yuren, Lactasia’s eyes sparkled as she let out an excited shriek.
“Hehe. Little one, what’s your name?”
“…I have no name to share with you.”
Yuren, sensing the thick demonic energy flowing from her, placed his hand on his sword hilt with a rigid expression.
“Ahhh~! What is it, what is it! Even your voice is so wonderful?”
Lactasia hugged herself, trembling with desire as she gazed at Yuren with covetous eyes.
“I’ve decided. You’ll become my pet, and I’ll cherish you for a long, long time.”
“….”
Her manner was so dismissive, as if we standing beside him were completely invisible.
‘She hasn’t changed, that woman.’
In my past life, she’d flirted like this before having her neck severed by Yuren.
“How about it? If you become my pet, I’ll let the others live.”
Why was that?
“Hehe. It’s not such a bad offer for you either. If you become my pet, you’ll experience heavenly pleasure.”
Even though I’d experienced this situation once before in my past life, seeing her attempt to seduce Yuren filled me with unbearable rage.
“Come here now. I can fulfill all your desires….”
“Hey.”
I cut off Lactasia’s words and took a bold step forward.
“How dare you try to seduce my man?”
Wait.
Now that I said it out loud, that phrasing sounded a bit odd.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————